This is a key moment for the study of historical fictions: there is a rising critical recognition of the texts and the convergence of lines of theory in the philosophy of history, narratology, popular literature, historical narratives of national and cultural identity, and cross-disciplinary approaches to narrative constructions of the past.

Narrative constructions of the past constitute a powerful discursive system for the production of cognitive and ideological representations of identity, agency, and social function, and for the negotiation of conceptual relationships and charged tensions between the complexity of societies in time and the teleology of lived experience. The licences of fiction, especially in mass culture, define a space of thought in which the pursuit of narrative forms of meaning is permitted to slip the chains of sanctioned historical truths to explore the deep desires and dreams that lie beneath all constructions of the past. Historical fictions measure the gap between the pasts we are permitted to know and those we wish to know: the interaction of the meaning-making narrative drive with the narrative-resistant nature of the past.

Historical fictions can be understood as an expanded mode of historiography. Scholars in literary, visual, historical and museum/re-creation studies have long been interested in the construction of the fictive past, understanding it as a locus for ideological expression.

We welcome paper proposals from Literature, Media, Art History, Musicology, Reception Studies, Museum Studies, Recreation and others. We welcome paper proposals across historical periods, with ambitious, high-quality, inter-disciplinary approaches and new methodologies that will support research into larger trends and which will lead to more theoretically informed understandings of the mode across historical periods, cultures and languages.

We aim to create a disciplinary core, where researchers can engage in issues of philosophy and methodology and generate a collective discourse around historical fictions in a range of media and across period specialities.

Paper proposals consisting of a title and abstract of no more than 250 words should be submitted to:

Email: historicalfictionsresearch@gmail.com

By September 1st 2015

Twitter: @HistoricalFic

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https://historicalfictionsresearch.org/2014/04/04/3/#respondFri, 04 Apr 2014 12:49:52 +0000http://historicalfictionsresearch.org/?p=3Continue reading →]]>The Historical Fictions Research Network aims to create a place for the discussion of all aspects of fictional historical narrative. We welcome people working on prose, drama, visual art, reception studies, musicology, museum displays, film, tv, gaming, wargaming, graphic novels, transformative works and any other areas engaged in the narrative construction of the fictional past.

We are in the early stages of setting this up. We will send out a call for papers at the end of May, for a conference on 20th-22nd February 2015, at Anglia Ruskin Conference.

By the end of July we will have a conference web page, and we intend to have a call for papers for the new journal, the Journal of Historical Fiction, at the beginning of 2015.